The real story of Tumbbad: Who is Hastar, the demon god, in Indian mythology?

Greed, gold and the curse of a demon god -- Tumbbad's rich visual storytelling encompasses all that and more. Set in Maharashtra, between 1918 and 1947, Rahi Anil Barve's directorial debut follows three generations of a Konkanastha Brahmin family who seek an ancestral treasure that has been jinxed by the gods. For those who haven't yet caught this homegrown horror film -- perhaps the best that Bollywood has offered audiences in years -- now would be the time to look away, because for the ones who have watched Tumbbad, the question of who is Hastar in Indian mythology remains unanswered. And as we attempt to shed some light on the origins of the fallen celestial being from the movie, you should know that there are going to be spoilers ahead.

Who is Hastar?

Tumbbad derives its scares not from the movement of shadows in the periphery or the creaking old iron doors but from the black void that every man conceals within himself. And Hastar, the fallen god-turned-demon, is the entity that seeks the void within all those who seek his gold. But who was Hastar? And how true is his legend? To understand where Hastar stands in India mythology, we first need to understand where he came from.

The origins of Hastar from Tumbbad

According to Tumbbad, this is the myth of Hastar: The world was created by the Goddess of Prosperity, who gave birth to 16 crore gods and goddesses. The Earth was her womb and she had large (perhaps endless) reserves of gold and grain. From this womb sprang her firstborn, her favourite and most evil of her children -- Hastar. Though born a celestial being, Hastar's intentions were less than noble. We wished to gain control over the goddess' wealth. While she let him have the gold, his 16 crore siblings declared war on him as soon as he reached for the grain (which fed gods and men alike). Weakened and unable to sustain their attacks, Hastar's mother saved him and contained him back in her womb. But there was a price: He would never be worshipped, as the other god and goddesses were. In fact, his name would be removed and censored from any texts for the rest of eternity.

Who worships Hastar?

Even though the demon god was never to be worshipped, ages after his imprisonment in the Earth, his memory was once again brought to life by a family of Konkanastha Brahmins in the village of Tumbbad, in Maharashtra. The narrator of the legend of Hastar and the protagonist of the film, Vinayak (Sohum Shah), says that the family went against the will of the gods and began to worship their fallen brother because his curse turned out to be a boon for them. Later in the film, we see that Hastar wear a seemingly bottomless purse of gold coins, which members of the family try to dip their hands into... at the risk of their lives.

Due to this insolence, Vinayak is heard telling his son, ever since their ancestors started worshipping Hastar, the gods have cursed Tumbbad and that their rage falls from the heavens in the form of incessant rain. But the weather is perhaps the most pleasent aspect of worshipping an entity whose existence was to be erased by divine order. All those who worship Hastar find themselves caught in a cycle of greed that repeats itself generation after generation -- bringing misfortune and destroying families and lives.

Who is Hastar in Indian mythology?

Though Tumbbad positions Hastar as a Hindu god, there is no known mention of Hastar in Indian mythology. This fact plays well into the movie's lore, since all mentions of Hastar were to be erased, as per the gods' conditions for sparing Hastar's life.

It is also interesting to note that the myth of Hastar being of brought down by his family bears resemblance to the elder gods -- the Titans -- of Greek mythology, who were the predecessors of the Olympians. Born of Gaia, the Greek Earth Mother figure who could stand in for the Goddess of Plenty from Tumbbad. But while Cronus was the leader of the Titans, who was eventually brought down by Zeus, his own son, Hastar seemed to be an outcast from the very beginning.

Another mythological figure who bears resemblance to Hastar is Mammon, whose story is found in the New Testament of the Bible. The god of material objects, Mammon's name itself is the Hebrew word for money. Mammon either appears or is referred to as an entity that promises worldly riches, invoking greed.

Is there a real village called Tumbad in Maharashtra?

Yes, Tumbad exists. Perhaps not the way it does in the Sohum Shah-Aanand L Rai production, but it surely makes its presence known in Ratnagiri's Khed district in Maharashtra's Konkan division. The village is about six and a half hours away from Mumbai and about 100 km from the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary. Though there is no real Tumbbad village story in terms of what the film offered -- the village itself served as the backdrop for noted Marathi novelist Shripad Narayan Pendse's work Tumbadche Khot (The Khots of Tumbbad). Interestingly, the one thing common between the film and the book set in Tumbad village is that both follow the journey of multiple generations of the same family.